Regret is for Smart People

iDay

It's here!

The iPhone. Godzilla of gadgets. I can't wait to see how Verizon responds when AT&T stock skyrockets. Maybe there is some deep, convoluted long-term strategy that has assured Verizon's ultimate victory, but Seth Godin seems to have it right. Status-quo is simply easier to pull off.

Mainstreamification

Transparency and eco-friendly corporate practice are now mainstream demands. Michael Moore's Sicko is bringing out more skeletons from the national closet and bringing the country that much closer to honest business. Still a long way to go, of course.

Trendwatching.com wrote a comprehensive report on this emerging wave of morality. I've added a list of agencies committed to social change to the sidebar, plus a few new links under My Sites.

Any social change advertising agencies hiring? Time to post up my resume, no doubt.

Sphere Head

They call the Marines "jarheads." They should call planners "Sphereheads." Most of what they do is understand new, different spheres of people and thinking.

I added some sites that unite account planners under the international flag of the curious. Russell set up a cool wiki, plannersphere, and I also found a social networking site for planners. What a strange new world I've found.

Jolly Green Giants

Sustainable business has been treated like a nonprofit, treehugger pursuit. Now that it might be worth something, entrepreneurs and investors are swarming to clean tech.

Sustainability has shifted from referring to the environment to the resources we use every day. "Clean tech" implies an economic future. Using technology to minimize the effects of industry is a decidedly consumerist solution to a conservationist problem.

But with China, India, and other expanding economies around the globe, clean tech such as wind and solar power look to be the new industrial giants.

Technorati uplink

If a blog is going to get anywhere, it needs connections. How long until every business has a blog? A few years? Never, for some? The new age of digital darwinism has begun.

Technorati Profile

Digging for Digital

Wired wrote about the growing demand for "digital anthropologists" who understand the online world of social networks, interactive sites, and surfing habits of the new digital world. Of course, this is because the big ad agencies have specialized so much in traditional media, they haven't changed their process.

When Goodby visited our ad program, they demonstrated how their agency transformed from doing less than 10% digital work a year ago, to over 50% now.  Hereafter, every project will have a major digital component. Agencies like Goodby and BBH will have to hire legions of web designers, probably from specialized studios, but strategy and planning will stay in house. So, what does it take to be a planner in the new digital environment?

Hmm. Digital anthropologist. Has a nice ring to it.

Trial By Empire

My friends and I grew up in the era of the revival of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings.  For a while, The Matrix was our visual bible. Our fiction diet was laden with epic sci-fi adventures and fantasy worlds. As such, we've come to understand the world as a story animated by evil empires, fearless rogues, and chosen heroes. No wonder we're critics of government and the corporations who wield vast power.

Art may imitate life, but it's a two-way mirror. The  messages and social commentary imbued by authors in their work carry on as a world view for future audiences. Fahrenheit 451, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, and 1984 may be more transparent in their writers' intent than modern cinematic marvels, but the narratives and character conflicts  share striking similarities.

If these media promote heroism and defiance of authority in the name of justice, perhaps we will see a surge of heroes in our culture. Or perhaps these messages fail to change behavior when pitted against the potent force of financial incentives, as mainstream media reinforce of the idea that the American Dream depends on money. We're caught in the timeless conflict of interest between the self and the greater society, the dilemma of the commons. So the question becomes, how do we tip the scale towards justice?

BBC and Responsibility

My roomate sent me this site for BBC outdoor ads. What an incredible use of technology, culture, and brand identity for creating understanding and furthering social awareness of pressing issues. The ads simply ask a question, then let the raw interactive data tell the story. Meanwhile, it's immediate feedback to guage how interested people are in the content. I'd made spec ads for Al Jazeera with the brand idea of helping people understand a deeper context for current issues, but this just blows me away. It's one of those I-wish-I'd-thought-of-that moments! Though, I'd been writing it for news/magazine print. The obvious lesson for me is to put the idea before the medium.

Here are som more cool BBC ads. (Scenes of military violence illustrated by countries' borders.)

• Commentary

Advertising for Peanuts
Textually.org
Bloomberg.com  : ``The Americans want to understand and hear about the big issues that affect them,'' BBC World News Editor Jeremy Hillman said today at a press conference in New York. ``It's about global news that's relevant to the U.S.''

A Business of Belief

Key points from an interview with Mark Earls:

• Belief is a potent fuel.
• People are most valuable when they feel valued.
• A manager should be like a coach; inspiring the team and providing big-picture direction, but letting them work together to set and accomplish goals.
• Encourage people to encourage others.
• A leader is a visionary, saying 'see the world this way.'
• Management shouldn't be about control, but building teams.
• It's OK for a leader to say, "I don't know." It's OK to work through it together.
• The militaristic view of hiring the top 10% talent and firing the 10% weakest members doesn't work in an industry that is 80% dependent on personal interactions.
• Management should be about building up everyone in the company.
• People in a business need to know its purpose. That's where commitment comes from, not from external incentives like salary or titles.
• A manager who feels bewildered and lost when there isn't tight control isn't going to make it.
• Consolidation has lead to management that is pressured by financial goals to meet specific goals. This doesn't work in a creative industry.
• People who just expect to do their jobs and get paid aren't as productive as those who feel like part of a team, working towards a purpose together.

The Difference:

Don't blink. Wow. Thanks, Seth.